In How Climate Change Comes to Matter: The Communal Life of Facts, Callison examines how information that starts out as scientific becomes relevant to the wider public. She uses ethnographic methods to bring together perspectives from science journalists, scientists, and three distinct social groups that are players in the discourse over climate change.

“Candis Callison has done the impossible,” says Sheila Jasanoff, author of Science and Public Reason. “In the reams of words written about climate change,one rarely finds a fresh perspective or responses to the most salient questions. Why does climate change matter, why do some care about it while others are indifferent, and is scientific knowledge the only way to address these questions?”

Henry Jenkins, coauthor of Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture, said the book “is essential reading for anyone who wants to better understand how science gets refracted across an increasingly diverse media landscape and for anyone who wants to understand how they might be more effective at changing entrenched beliefs and practices.”

Building in part on the research behind the book, Callison was awarded a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Grant. The grant supports research into changes to professional norms, practices and standards for Canadian Arctic journalists working in an era of environmental change and global audiences. She will be launching a blog about this research soon.